Review: The Shade, by Tara Wood

Beware Tara Wood! She is one of those authors who writes the kind of books that make you miss your bus, burn your toast, be late for work, and ignore your family.

The Shade is not a long read, but what it lacks in length, it more than makes up for in intensity. As far as suspense goes, you couldn’t do better. I could not put it down.

Tara Wood takes a simple story and gives it first a dusting of eerie, then she twists it into a second dimension, and ups the stakes. She is incredible, the way she plunges her readers straight into deep mystery and suspense.

With few characters, you’d think the plot would lack depth. Not so. Not by a very long way. Everly Whitcombe is hoping to finish writing a book in the relative peace of her grandmother’s house on the Isle of Wight. At least, she would if the nightmares let her find her peace. Cillian is a Shade, and he deals in dreams. Nightmares, to be precise. The problem is that they are attracted to each other.

The descriptions are brilliant – you can’t fail but know exactly where you are, all your senses saturated, until you are one with the character. The pace just picks up and picks up, and then picks up some more, all the way to the end.

I can’t find fault with Tara Wood’s writing. Very, very rarely, can you find an author who simply has the talent. Whose writing flows effortlessly and who can make your blood pump through your veins from the first page to the last.

I, for one, will be reading more from this author. For The Shade, Tara Wood receives a very well deserved five stars from me.